TEENAGE pregnancy rates are falling across Birmingham and the West Midlands as schoolgirls heed sex education lessons.

TEENAGE pregnancy rates are falling across Birmingham and the West Midlands as schoolgirls heed sex education lessons.

The conception rate among under 18s is falling faster in the West Midlands than in the rest of the country, according to latest national figures, released today.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the under-18 conception rate in England in 2004 was 41.5 pregnancies per 1000 girls aged 15-17, compared to 42.1 per 1000 in 2003 - a drop of 1.4 per cent.

It also represents an overall reduction of 11 per cent since a concerted teenage pregnancy strategy was launched in 1998, when the under-18 pregnancy rate stood at 46.6 per cent.

But the fall in teenage pregnancies has been significantly greater in the West Midlands.

The conception rate for girls aged 15 to 17 in the region has fallen by almost 13 per cent since 1998, reducing from 51.7 pregnancies per 1,000 girls to 45.0 last year.

At the same time, the drop since 2003 was 4.66 per cent, more than three times the national reduction.

The figures were welcomed by Penny Barber, chief executive of Brook sex advisory clinic, in Birmingham.

She said: "It's encouraging that conception rates are moving in the right direction and confirms that the teenage pregnancy strategy is having a real impact in many areas.

"But there is still a big challenge ahead and it is essential that the strategy does not lose momentum.

"Where rates are not improving as much as hoped, we must remember they would be even worse without the interventions that have taken place."